BREAKING: Rotimi Akeredolu, Ondo governor is dead after prolonged struggle with life-threatening ailments
The 67 years old statesman is reported to have died at about 2 a.m. on Wednesday in Lagos where he was managed by State House doctors up to his death as he was not able to be flown abroad for treatment, a senior government official in Ondo State said.
“Akeredolu is dead; he died in Lagos,” the source said.
“They were looking for dialysis machines to be sent to his secret location in Lagos last week.”
He died of leukemia(cancer of the blood) and prostate cancer, two ailments that had made him incapacitated for several months.
After a three-month medical leave in Germany, the ill governor returned to Nigeria in September. Akeredolu stayed in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital and tried to govern his state from there, leading to public outrage. He was set to take another leave of absence in December 2023 after President Bola Tinubu ordered him to transfer control to his deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who has been filling in as Acting Governor.
Leukemia is a cancer of the blood caused by a rise in the number of white blood cells forming tissues that hinders the body’s ability to fight infections.
For sufferers, the white blood cells crowd out the red blood cells and platelets needed by the body to stay healthy.
White blood cells are potent infection fighters which grow and divide in an orderly way, as the body needs them. But in people with leukemia, the bone marrow produces an excessive amount of abnormal white blood cells, which don’t function properly.
